


By the Angel

by orphan_account



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angel Alec, Angel Wings, Comforting Magnus Bane, Daylighter Simon Lewis, Hurt Alec, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Malec, Panic Attacks, Protective Magnus Bane, Supportive Isabelle Lightwood, bad clave, just one so far
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-07-10 08:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6976180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a mundane with too much knowledge does something to Alec, the group will have to deal with the unexpected ramifications. Unfortunately, Alec will never be the same again, but at least he still has Magnus to help him through all the new changes, however things become complicated when the Clave decides to get involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any recognisable content, it all belongs to Cassandra Clare

Magnus let himself fall back against his bed with a groan of pleasure at the immediate relief from the strain of keeping himself standing. He was so unbelievably stressed and tired, but he couldn’t go to sleep, not yet. Alec was out on a hunt and Magnus was worried. He was worried because it wasn’t a demon they were hunting for.

No, this time it was a mundane. It was against the rules to harm a mundane but the Clave had declared this human void of any protections due to the nature of the crime. From what little information Magnus had been given this particular mundane had been kidnapping and experimenting on shadowhunters and downworlders. He had been playing with their genetics, torturing them, giving them mysterious drug concoctions to test their reactions. It was obvious that many had died as a result of his trials.

Which was why Magnus was so anxious. Rumour had it that all the shadowhunters that had been kidnapped had died, so somehow Magnus couldn’t relax knowing that his Alec had voluntarily gone hunting for the monster. The monster that had kidnapped a twelve year old werewolf and done something to him so that he could never shift back from his wolf form. The child was now doomed to spend the rest of his life as an animal. He had also taken a vampire, twenty years old and newly changed, the poor woman couldn’t retract her fangs and felt an overwhelming need for blood at all times. She had been put out of her misery by her own kind. From what Simon had told Magnus, the thirst was an agonising pain, a starving, burning and cramping pain that was all consuming.

There were even rumours throughout the warlock circles that a young warlock had been taken and experimented on. Her magic was enhanced to the point where it took over her completely and slowly started killing her. There had been nothing they could do for her, except try to make her as comfortable as possible while she died.

“Damn it, Alec. Why are you like this?” He groaned as he rolled onto his side on the bed.

Don’t get him wrong, he loved how brave his boyfriend was, he was always willing to rush to the aid of people he’d never even met before, he constantly fought the demons that mundanes had no idea existed, and he never complained about it. But he wished that he was home in bed, safe and sound.

“Argh!” Magnus shouted as he leapt of the bed, he was too antsy to relax just now.

Stupid Nephilim.

Stupid demons.

Stupid mundanes.

He was pulled out of his angst fest by the loud ringing of his phone, he grabbed it to check the caller ID. _Alec._

“Alec?” He answered immediately, not wasting a single second.

“It’s Jace.” Came the voice of the wrong shadowhunter. Magnus wanted Alec, not Jace. “We’re on our way over to your apartment right now, we need your help. Alec’s really badly hurt.”

Magnus could probably count on his hands the number of times he had felt complete and utter panic, and most of them had occurred after he had met the eldest Lightwood child, but this was different.

Magnus felt as though someone had injected his ice water straight into his veins, he could have sworn that his heart paused momentarily before resuming at triple the rate.

“What do you mean hurt?” He asked, his voice was hoarse due to the fact his mouth and throat had completely dried out.

“Carlstone, the mundane.” Jace said. “He had him alone for ten minutes, we didn’t even know. We were being attacked, he managed to control demons somehow.”

“What did he do, Jace?” Magnus asked through gritted teeth.

“We don’t know-” Jace was cut off by a scream of agony, Magnus recognised the scream instantly, it was Alec.

“How long will you be?” Magnus asked.

“Not long, five to ten minutes I think.”

“I’ll be ready, the door will be open, come straight to the living room, I’ll prepare the sofa for him.” Magnus instructed and then he hung up.

With a snap of his fingers the sofa was covered with a soft blanket and the coffee table was cleared of all of Magnus and Alec’s stuff.

Magnus gathered as much as he could, all the healing potions, spell books, ingredients with healing powers, and placed them all on the coffee table. He had no idea what to expect but gathering from Alec’s shouts, there was nothing good coming.

Just as Magnus flicked the large spell book open to the page with healing enchantments, the door to his apartment burst open with a loud bang as it collided with the wall. Normally, Magnus would have shouted at the person to watch his walls, but today his attention skipped over the dent in the plaster and went start to the young shadowhunter in Jace’s arms.

Alec’s eyes were clenched shut and beads of sweat popped up on his forehead. He was writhing in pain making it difficult for Jace to keep a hold on him, but he managed to support his parabatai nonetheless.

“Alec.” Magnus breathed, looking at the pain on his lover’s face. He turned to Jace. “Get him on the sofa, now.”

Jace rushed passed Magnus and placed Alec gently on the sofa.

Magnus glanced over him. There was no signs of blood or any lacerations. His skin was intact as far as Magnus could see. He snapped his fingers leaving Alec in just his boxers. Usually he would take the time to check him out but he needed to move fast today, something was causing Alec pain. For the life of him, Magnus couldn’t see anything.

He quickly started chanting and held his hands over Alec’s torso.

“What are you doing?” Jace asked.

“Shh.” Isabelle chided him. “He’s casting a diagnostic spell, don’t interrupt, let him work.”

“I don’t understand.” Magnus muttered to himself. “Alec’s perfectly healthy. I just can't find anything physically wrong. I need to talk to him.”

“Magnus, he’s in so much pain that he is barely conscious, he’s not speaking any time soon.” Isabelle said.

“There’s a way, but it won’t be pleasant.” Magnus said grimly. “I can wake him up enough so that he can talk to us. He’ll be in pain. A lot of it, but we’ll know how to help him.”

“That’s providing he even knows what Carlstone did to him.” Jace said angrily. “There’s no way you can do this to him.”

“Look, I don’t want to do this anymore than you do, but look at the bigger picture here. If, by some chance, Alec knows what is happening then we may be able to stop the pain for him. Otherwise he’s going to be stuck in a painful haze for an unknown length of time.” Magnus said.

“And what if he doesn’t know anything? We’ll put him through agony for no reason.” Jace argued.

“You think I want him to be in pain? You think that every second he is hurting isn’t hurting me too?” Magnus asked furiously.

“Stop fighting. Do it, Magnus.” Isabelle said tiredly.

Magnus looked at Isabelle carefully. “Are you sure?”

“It’s the only way to help him.”

“I’m not happy with this.” Jace piped up.

“Oh, you're never happy with anything.” Isabelle said flippantly. “Do it.”

Magnus nodded carefully and then laid a hand on either side of Alec’s head, he hoped that this was going to be worth it. With a deep breath he slowly let his magic flow into Alec – giving him strength, waking him up.

Alec jerked awake on the sofa with a scream of pain that didn’t even sound human. His nails dug into his palms so hard that Magnus could see wells of blood coming from crescent shaped injuries. There was blood on his chin too, he had bitten his lip.

Magnus fought the urge to knock him out when another stomach churning scream erupted from Alec.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own any recognisable content. 
> 
> Mentions of pain and blood.

Alec’s spine bent unnaturally as another scream left him. It was pure torture. For everyone.

Alec was in incomprehensible pain, so much that his eyes were rolling in his head and his hands that were now gripping the sofa actually managed to pierce the leather with their nails. The group watched in horror, aware that there was absolutely nothing that they could do to help Alec. His body was covered in sweat and Magnus could have sworn that the shadowhunter was on fire what with the heat that was coming off of him.  

“What about a rune? Don’t you lot have something akin to a painkiller in rune form?” Magnus asked sharply.

“Oh yes, why on earth did we not think of that?” Isabelle sneered sarcastically.

“We tried.” Jace clarified. “He burned through them far too quickly to get any benefit from them.”

“What is the point in having runes and magic, if they can’t help when they’re needed?” Magnus growled and blue sparks jumped out of his finger tips and soaked through Alec’s skin. They were meant to help relieve his pain but according to the arch of Alec’s back as another shriek of pain escaped him, it hadn’t work.

“Alec, come on, focus.” Magnus muttered desperately.

“Mag- Magnus?” Alec panted, his eyes struggling to focus through the haze that was blurring his vision.

“Alec, love.” Magnus said, he spoke quickly, trying to hold on to Alec’s momentary clarity. “We’re trying to do everything to stop the pain, but I need to know what that _thing_ did to you?”

Alec clenched his eyes shut for a brief moment and struggled against the pain, it was too much, too painful, it was going to kill him. He couldn’t live through pain so severe and for a second he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to keep fighting it.

“Enhancing genetics.” Alec managed to say before he was overcome by the agony, unable to contain his shouts and pleads as he begged someone – anyone – to make it stop.

Magnus swallowed, trying to loosen his tight throat as he placed his fingers against Alec’s temple and let a few sparks knock him into unconsciousness. It was a small relief to know that Alec wasn’t suffering through the pain, well it _was_ a small relief until Magnus saw the frown on Alec’s face. It seemed that even unconsciousness couldn’t mask the pain from the Nephilim.

“Enhancing genetics? What does that even mean?” Jace asked, not sure if he even wanted to know the answer.

“I think I know,” Isabelle said unhappily, “I think he did the same to all the other downworlders and shadowhunters that he caught.”

“The werewolf who couldn’t change back.” Jace said.

“Exactly.” Magnus piped up. “Think about it. He must have done something to the werewolf in order to make it so that he could never change back into his human form. What if he messed around with his DNA sequence and made it so that the lycanthropy was the dominant gene, it would have overpowered the humanity in him so that he was essentially a wolf with the mind of who he was before.”

“The vampire who couldn’t control their thirst, they were still themselves in their own mind except they were overruled by their bloodlust. The entire time they were killing and drinking human’s blood, they were apologising and saying that they never wanted to end up like that.” Jace said.

“When Carlstone caught a warlock, the warlock ended up being overpowered by their own magic, it consumed them entirely and burned up their body, until nothing was left of them at all.” Magnus said, frowning at the dire ends to all of the tales.

“But no shadowhunter has ever survived before.” Isabelle said.

“No shadowhunter ever made it this far, Izzy, maybe Carlstone finally succeeded.” Jace said.

“Maybe.” Isabelle agreed. “But is that a good thing? You know how all the other stories ended, what’s to say Alec won’t turn into a murderer or be consumed by himself?”

“Because you’re Nephilim, and so is he.” Magnus said. “The offspring of human and angels. If Carlstone’s intentions really are to enhance the non-human part of Alec’s genetic code, then we’re going to be dealing with a primarily angelic Alec.”

“Oh shit.” Jace muttered. “Wait! Can we still curse around him?”

Isabelle punched his arm. “Of course we can, you idiot. You heard Magnus, his mind will remain the same, its just going to be some physiological changes that we’ll have to adapt to.”

“Is the pain normal, do you think?” Jace asked.

“I think so.” Manus said. “The downworlders who survived were never able to hold a conversation so they wouldn’t be able to say whether they had gone through the agony beforehand, but if you try to think about it logically, Alec’s entire DNA code was just ripped apart and reorganised somehow, that’s gonna hurt a bit.”

Magnus placed a hand on Alec’s forehead, he was warm but his temperature had come down a little bit, that was a relief, the feverish heat that had been coming off Alec earlier had him more than a little worried.

“He’ll still be Alec.” Isabelle said. “But the Clave will not see it that way, we’re going to have to keep this a secret, now more than ever. With Alec and our parents already on tenterhooks, this will just push them straight over the edge. They won’t hesitate to hand him over to the Clave and only the angel knows what they would do to him.”

“Throw him in the silent city prisons, strip him of his marks, torture him for information. Take your pick, none of them are great options.” Jace said.

“That’s why we’re going to stop Carlstone before the Clave realises what he’s doing and decided to look more closely at anyone who has been in contact with him.” Magnus said. “If the worst _does_ happen, then I am quite happy to whisk Alec away to another country. Trust me, _that_ would not be an issue.”

“Thanks for that mental image, warlock.” Jace said with a frown.

“I never mentioned anything suggestive.” Magnus protested innocently.

“Right.” Isabelle snorted. “It’s not like you want to ’ _whisk Alec away to another country’_ to get some cultural exposure. We all know what you were thinking about, Magnus.”

“Well, for your infor-” Magnus was abruptly cut off by Alec’s eyes flying open and his entire body shaking in violent agony.

“That’s impossible.” Magnus muttered as he rushed to Alec’s side. “You shouldn’t have been able to break through that spell.”

Alec’s body jerked upright and he clenched his fists, every muscle in his body was tensed and shaking.

“Mags, it hurts, please stop it, my back!” Alec pleaded through the tears.

“What the hell?” Jace shouted.

Magnus followed his line of vision to Alec’s upper back, his shoulder blades to be more precise. There was a long gash on each one, the cuts had not been there before.

In a sudden flurry of movement, Alec fell off the sofa, Magnus had thought that he had fainted when in actual fact he was kneeling on the floor, hands planted on the coffee table as if to steady himself, his entire body moving with each shuddering breath.

When it happened, it happened so fast that Magnus was barely able to see it.

The skin on Alec’s shoulders split even more and all of a sudden feathers filled Magnus’ vision.

Feathers the same colour as Alec’s hair. Feathers that were attatched to Alec. Alec the offspring of humans and angels.

Alec had _wings._

“Well, this might be a bit tricky to hide.” Magnus heard Jace say hoarsely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was trickier to write than expected, I was unsure what colour to make Alec's wings but I thought black was good as it fit him more than white or a bright colour. 
> 
> Check out my tumblr 'runedmalec' for malec themed one-shots.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the mortal instruments series.

The room was quiet, only Alec’s laboured breathing could be heard as he tried to wrap his head around the sudden, distinct, _lack_ of pain. Sure, his back was still aching, but he could handle that. It was nothing when compared with what he had gone through just moments earlier. He waited for someone to speak, to break the silence, but no one did.

In fact, it wasn’t until Alec felt something tickle his side, that he realised the silence in the room could not possibly be normal. Even through the haze of pain, he had still managed to hear the panicked voices of Isabelle, Jace and Magnus. Where were they? Why was it so quiet? And what on earth was tickling his side so relentlessly?

He made a move to grab whatever it was and found himself holding something soft, he tried to shove it away from his side, to stop the irritation, but as soon as he did he felt another rack of pain travel up his back. What the-?

His eyes flew open and his head whipped around to stare at the hand that was holding onto a large black feather. He froze. Those feathers were attached to him. They were _his_ feathers.

“Magnus?” He spoke tentatively.

The warlock was still staring open mouthed at his boyfriend.

“Alec.” Magnus said hoarsely. “Does it hurt?”

“What?” Alec was distracted by the _feathers_ that were surrounding him. “No, it doesn’t hurt. Well, it did when I pulled one of the- one of them. I guess I should avoid doing that.”

“Yes, definitely avoid that.” Magnus muttered.

“Alec has wings. Oh hell, Alec has _wings!”_ Isabelle said suddenly. “How on earth are we going to hide this from our parents?”

Alec’s breathing was slowly picking up.

Isabelle was right. There was no way that they would be able to hide this from their parents, even parents as clueless as Robert and Maryse Lightwood. They had practically ignored Alec ever since they had found out that he preferred to date men, but even they were not stupid enough to miss the large, black feathers that seemed to surround their son. They wouldn’t let it slide without asking any questions and they certainly would not hesitate to report the situation to The Clave.

By the Angel! The Clave.

The Clave would see him as unnatural, they’d want to learn more about why he was now a freak with wings. They would want to experiment on him, or keep him locked in the silent city or even class him as a downworlder and strip him of his marks. He couldn’t bear to be stripped of his marks, he may not fit in perfectly in the shadowhunter world but that was his life. It was the only think he knew and if he was kicked out he’d be lost.

“Alec!”

Magnus’ voice was close and loud and Alec willed himself to try to focus on it but all he could think about was the ramifications of the mission that they had failed. After all, even if he managed to hide this from his parents and from The Clave, there was still the matter of all other victims of Carlstone, they had all died. He could still remember the words that Carlstone had said and they made him shiver in fear.

_“You’ll be very valuable when this is all over, little shadowhunter. Even if I'm not around, there is a queue of people waiting to succeed me and they all know how precious you’re going to be, and we’ll definitely be coming back for you.”_

Carlstone didn’t say how many people there actually were and that thought terrified Alec even more than the thought of Carlstone coming back for him. Alec was starting to feel lightheaded, this was bad. This was so, so very bad.

“Alec! Breathe!”

Alec took in a deep, shuddering breath at the words. How long had he been holding his breath? It must have been a while as the breath that he took managed to dispel some of the lightness he was feeling in his mind and cleared his blurry vision. He hadn’t even noticed the dark tinges that had appeared at the edges of his vision.

“That’s it, and another. Take another breath.” Magnus said soothingly.

Alec could feel him holding his hand, except it didn’t feel like his own hand, he didn’t feel like he was in his own body. He felt separate. As though he was watching a man comfort his panicked boyfriend, rather than being the one receiving the comfort.

“I think he’s have a panic attack.” Jace muttered from somewhere behind Alec.

“Wow, you don’t say.” Isabelle said sarcastically.

Alec could hear the worry in her voice, underneath the icy façade and he wanted to reach out to her and tell her not to be scared, that he was ok, it was all under control.

Except it wasn’t. Alec was gasping for breath that wouldn’t seem to come, holding tightly onto Magnus’ hand and thinking about all the things that he really didn’t want to think about. This was torture, this was almost worse than the pain that he had been going through before he sprouted wings.

“Keep breathing, Alec. Try to take slower, deeper breaths. You're doing really well.” Magnus said.

“Don’t…. lie…. Magn’s.” Alec gasped, between the sharp breaths that he was taking.

“I’m not, and you're wasting your breath, literally.” Magnus said. “You _are_ doing well. This is a lot to take in and frankly, I’d be concerned if you weren’t in some state of panic.”

“It’s… hard.” Alec said slowly.

“It’d be easier if you shut up.” Isabelle said snidely.

“Not helping, Izzy.” Jace grumbled.

“Focus on me.” Magnus said, shooting the other two a fierce glare. “Breathe with me, you can do it, just copy my breaths and focus on me. Ignore everything else.”

Alec tried to do as he said and he stared into the cat-like eyes as he shakily inhaled each time Magnus did, his breaths were shallower than the  warlock’s but Magnus didn’t comment on it. Instead he smiled and kept breathing with Alec until the younger man had managed to form some semblance of control.

“Thanks, Magnus.” He said softly.

“It’s what I'm here for.” Magnus said with a soft grin.

“What do we do now?” Alec asked. “Where do we go from here?”

“Well, I would suggest that we learn a bit more about this Carlstone.” Jace suggested. “Did he say anything to you when he had you alone? He had to have, you told us it was enhanced genetics earlier.”

_They all know how precious you're going to be._

“There’s more of them. Carlstone didn’t say how many but he said that there were more waiting to take over from him. He said that-” Alec broke off, looking at Magnus, he didn’t know if he could finish his sentence.

“Said what?” Magnus asked with a deceivingly calm expression. “What did he say?”

“He said that they would could back for me. That I'm valuable.” Alec said quietly.

“They won’t get within a mile of you. I promise, I'm going to hunt each one of them down and kill them all.”

“We’ll help.” Isabelle said confidently.

“Of course.” Jace agreed.

“First though,” Magnus interrupted. “We’re going to need to work out what exactly they’ve done to you, and we’ll have to work out how to hide it from others.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!! Sorry for the lack of updates, uni has been crazy but as of Tuesday I will be on holiday :D (except my work D: ) and I hope to update a lot more regularly and post a few more one shots on tumblr. (runedmalec if you weren't aware;) )


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any recognisable content belongs to Cassandra Clare

“How are we ever going to work this out?” Alec muttered in frustration as he flipped the pages of a very old, dusty book.

“By being persistent and dedicated to the cause.” Magnus said far too cheerfully for someone who was reading in a foreign language at one in the morning.

“What if there isn’t an answer?” Alec asked hesitantly. “What if we can't figure out what exactly happened and I'm stuck like this forever?”

“No.” Magnus said, flicking his nose as though he were a misbehaving puppy. “We can't think like that. Anyways, it doesn’t matter to me regardless. I love you, Alec, wings or no wings.”

“I love you too.”

“Good.” Magnus pecked him quickly before smirking. “Now keep reading.”

“Ugh.” Alec threw himself back against the sofa in frustration. His eyes widened instantly and he found himself leaping to his feet with a shout of pain.

“Alec? Are you ok?” Magnus’ concerned gaze fixated on Alec who was blushing and looking away sheepishly.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” He muttered.

“What happened?” Magnus asked. “You hurt yourself, how?”

“It’s nothing, I just landed wrong is all.” Alec lied, Magnus nodded seemingly accepting the answer and returned his attention to his book. Alec let out a quiet sigh of relief and carefully sat down again, taking care not to sit on his wings this time; that had been really painful. Not to mention humiliating. It was going to take a while to adjust to his situation.

“What do you think Izzy’s going to tell my parents?” Alec asked after a short while in which the only sounds had been the flicking of pages and grumbling at yet another dead end.

“I’m not sure,” Magnus admitted, “maybe something to do with a hunt? I doubt that she’s going to tell them that you're here.”

“True, they’d probably storm this place and rescue me from your corrupting ways.” Alec said with a snort. It was no secret that Alec’s parents were two of the most homophobic shadowhunters that Magnus had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

“Corrupting? I think I like that description of myself.” Magnus said with a smirk and a waggle of his perfectly shaped eyebrows.

“You would.” Alec muttered as he flung another book onto the pile that they had dubbed ‘useless’. “I’m starting to think that we’re not going to find anything.”

“Starting to?” Magnus said lightly. “Alec you’ve been nothing but pessimistic about this entire situation since the get go.”

“I have _not_ been pessimistic.” Alec denied. “I’ve been realistic. How often have you heard of shadowhunters sprouting wings?”

“Well, never, but if Carlstone managed to figure out how to make it happen then surely he must have done his own research and gotten information from somewhere.” Magnus said. “I have no idea what we’re looking for, Alec, but we’ll find something eventually.”

“But,” Alec hesitated, he didn’t want to voice the thoughts that were flying around in his head, but he knew that they should consider all angles to the problem, “what if Carlstone was the information source? What if he was the first one to think this through and begin experimenting? There wouldn’t be anything in any of those books and Carlstone is long gone.”

“I really hope you're wrong, but unfortunately I think there might be something to your theory.” Magnus admitted after a few minutes of silence while he thought about Alec’s idea. “I think we need to start working on tracking Carlstone down.”

“Agreed, but he could be anywhere. He’s had more than enough of a head start on us.” Alec groaned.

“I don’t think he’ll be that far away.” Magnus admitted. “He said he’d be coming back for you, which means he won’t have gone far.”

“He also said that he has followers, for all we know, he might have a small army at his beck and call.” Alec said.

“So we keep an eye out for anyone suspicious hanging around or following you.” Magnus said. “If we can catch one of his little minions, then we could figure out a way to track him.”

“So I’m bait?” Alec asked with a raised eyebrow.

“What? No!” Magnus said vehemently. “You will never be bait. I mean it, Alec, I will _not_ let them get their hands on you. They’ve caused you too much pain already, and when I find them I will make them wish that they’d never been born. I will make the pain they put you through look like a child’s tickle. They’ll plead for their lives by the time I'm through with them.”

“Don’t.” Alec said softly, taking in the tensed posture of his warlock, carefully noting the dangerous swirls of fury in the yellow eyes and the sparks jumping between the fingers of his clenched hands.

“Why not? They hurt you. I hurt them. Its fair.” Magnus said.

“None of this is fair, and I don’t want you wasting any of your time or energy on punishing those monsters for what they’ve done.”

“But I want them to suffer.” Magnus said with a growl in his tone.

“Mags, please, look at me.” Alec said gently, the tone caused the warlock to relax minutely and wander over to where Alec was seated and sit next to him, taking care not to sit on the black feathers. “I understand that you want your revenge, trust me, I do. I want revenge too, but after the pain I went through, god Magnus, it was indescribable. It was horrendous. I can't do that to someone else, not knowing how it felt, and I can't sit by and let someone else do it either. I can't sit back and let you put someone through that sort of pain.”

“I understand.” Magnus said, despite the fact that Alec’s words had made him want to hurt Carlstone even more. “I won’t do anything to upset you, but if anyone dares to try to hurt you again, then I will not be held responsible for my actions.”

“That’s all I can ask, I guess.” Alec said. “Now let’s move on from such morbid topics and change the direction of our research.”

“What do you suggest?” Magnus asked.

“Well, obviously we’re not getting anywhere searching for an explanation as to how Carlstone did this and how to reverse it, so why don’t we look for a way to hide it until we _do_ figure things out.” Alec said. “That way, I can go back to the Institute and we’ll raise fewer suspicions.”

“I guess that is a pretty good idea.” Magnus said. “What about a glamour?”

“No, all shadowhunters have runes that allow them to see through glamours, I wouldn’t last five minutes before someone dragged me in front of The Clave.”

“My glamours are different though.” Magnus said with a suggestive grin that made Alec snicker and shove his shoulder.

“I am not having you exhausting yourself in order to glamour me all the time, we will think of something else.” Alec said. “If there’s an emergency then sure, go for it, otherwise we will keep thinking.”

“Buzzkill.” Magnus muttered.

“Shut up, you dork.” Alec muttered fondly.

“Oh sure, _I’m_ the dork.” Magnus said rolling his eyes. “Never mind the fact that as soon as we watch a movie featuring any form of martial arts you decide to critique everything from their form to their moves, and _then_ you decide to pause it and demonstrate the correct techniques and ways in which they could have won the fight.”

“Shut up, I’m going to bed.” Alec said.

“And don’t even get me started on your ability to quote the most random TV shows and books.” Magnus said, enjoying the red hue that was steadily creeping up Alec’s neck.

“ _Goodnight_ , Magnus.” Alec said standing up and walking out of the room with his chin in the air. The effect of which was slightly lessened as Alec’s wings got stuck in the doorway and Magnus watched with glee as he cursed and stomped the remainder of the way to bed.

“I’ll be through soon, darling.” He called out cheerfully, and couldn’t help but laugh at the muffled curses coming through the wall.

Magnus glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning now, Alec seemed to have the right idea about going to bed, they could try and figure this out in the morning. Maybe they’d do a better job if they weren’t sleep deprived and still reeling from the shocking events that had gone on. Plus, Magnus did love to fall asleep holding his shadowhunter, who was very cuddly when he was sleepy.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, thanks for all the kind words so far, I seriously appreciate it!!


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is recognisable.

“Would you try and be a little quieter?” Isabelle whisper-shouted at her blond haired pseudo-brother as he walked into the coat stand and sent it flying to the floor with an inappropriately loud clatter. They hadn’t even been inside the institute for more than a few minutes.

“Sorry, I’m trying.” Jace muttered.

“How you’ve managed to kill so many demons is beyond me, considering how bad you are at sneaking into your own home.” Isabella said abrasively. “That stand has been there since before I was even _conceived_. You should be used to it by now.”

“If it’s alright with you, I’d rather not think about your conception.” Jace said.

“Of course that’s the part that you’d focus on.” Isabelle said.

“You brought it up.” Jace retorted.

“Alright, alright, shut up now.” Isabelle said. “We’re going to get caught if you don’t.”

“If _I_ don’t shut up?” Jace said raising an eyebrow. “What about you? You’re talking just as much as I am right now.”

“I swear to the angel, you’re insufferable.” Isabelle growled. “I have no idea how Clary can stand to be around you for more than five minutes.”

“Because she knows what a catch I am.” Jace said.

“Oh you’re a catch alright, just like catching chlamydia.” Isabelle said.

“Hey!” Jace said. ”That’s not-”

“Jace, shut up!” Something about Isabelle’s tone of voice caused Jace to actually listen, his mouth snapped shut and he turned away from where he was picking up the coat rack to see her staring at something in horror.

Jace frowned and followed her gaze straight to-

_Oh_

Maryse Lightwood was standing with crossed arms, glaring daggers at them, she was clearly unamused by the topic of conversation, or maybe it was the time that had her riled up. It was unclear whether she had been woken by their noise or if she had been sitting up waiting for their return.

Judging by the fact that Robert was nowhere to be seen, Isabelle assumed that he had slept through their ruckus, meaning that they must have woken Maryse as well. That hurt. Usually, if she went on a hunt with Alec and Jace they were expected to call if they were going to be out later than eleven, but it seemed as though the one time that they were actually in trouble and could have done with some help, their parents had gone to bed without a second thought.

“Where have you two been all this time?” Maryse asked in her usual displeased tone.

“Hunting.” Isabelle said.

“A rogue werewolf in a chip shop.” Jace said snidely.

Maryse didn’t even dignify his comment with an answer. Instead she pinned them with yet another glare, it was silly really, she glared at them so often that Jace felt as though it was becoming less effective.

“Not only were you out late, doing whatever it is you were doing, but you also proceeded to make a noise that could wake the dead when you eventually dragged yourself home.” Maryse practically growled.

“You're angry because we woke you up?” Isabelle asked in shock.

“Just go to bed, I will deal with you in the morning. I can't stand to look at you right now.” Maryse said and with a final disappointed look, she turned and stalked out of the room, her dressing gown wafting behind her.

“Is she serious?” Jace muttered.

“I think she is.”

“She didn’t even notice Alec was missing.” Jace said furiously.

“We don’t mention that to him.” Isabelle said sharply. “He’s been having a rough time after coming out to them, especially with dad. We _can't_ tell him that she didn’t even notice that he was missing.”

“Agreed, but what do we tell him?” Jace asked, he knew how much all the snide comments and disparaging remarks were affecting Alec, the fear that his parents wouldn’t accept him was all too true.

“I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. As long as you don’t bother trying to make up an excuse.” Isabelle snorted. “Honestly, a werewolf in a chip shop? I swear, Simon could have done better than that.”

“Now that’s going a bit too far.” Jace said as his chin raised slightly in defiance.

“Go to bed, Jace.” Isabelle said as she sauntered out the hallway. “We’ll need to be on the ball tomorrow if we’re going to be able to help Alec at all.”

-

It took a few moments for Magnus to realise what had woken him that morning. At first he thought it must have been the brilliant sunlight that came in through the window and shone directly on his face, it seemed that neither he nor Alec had remembered to close the curtains last night, however after he felt something tickling his back he realised that he needed to re-evaluate what had woken him.

He rolled onto his other side so that he was facing Alec and chuckled quietly as he realised what in fact had woken him.

Alec was curled on his side, facing Magnus, wrapped up in his wings as though they were a blanket, every time Alec exhaled his breath caused the feathers to billow out and thus tickle Magnus’ chest, which would have been were his back was before he had rolled over.

Magnus couldn’t resist. He reached out with a shaky hand and ran the tips of his fingers along one of the long, black feathers. They were so soft, he marvelled at them, carefully sifting them among his fingers. They were beautiful and silky, just like Alec’s hair, and Magnus was quickly discovering that he enjoyed playing with the feathers just as much as he liked to play with Alec’s hair.

A breathy laugh alerted Magnus to the fact that Alec was slowly returning to the land of consciousness.

“Tickles.” Alec murmured, his voice thick with sleep as he blinked tiredly against the harsh morning sun. “Wha’ time s’it?”

“Almost nine.” Magnus said with a fond grin.

“Ugh.” Alec groaned and burrowed further into the pillow, his wings tightening around his body.

Magnus and Alec stiffened and stared at each other in shock. All traces of sleep had vanished from Alec’s face and he looked wide awake.

“Did they just?” he asked quietly.

“You saw that, I wasn’t just imagining things?” Alec asked, he had stopped staring at Magnus and was instead looking at the wings with a mixture of what could only be described as horror and fascination.

“You moved them!” Magnus said.

“I can control them?” Alec asked.

 “Try it again.” Magnus said.

“How?” Alec asked. “I didn’t mean to do that, I don’t know how I made them move,”

“Try… I don’t know, flexing them?” Magnus suggested.

“Flexing them?” Alec said flatly. “Are you serious?”

“It’s worth a shot right?” Magnus said excitedly, looking every bit like a child on Christmas Eve.

“You’re having way too much fun with this.” Alec stated, before sitting up in the bed to allow for easier movement of his wings. If he could get them to move. “It’s strange, I know they’re there but I have no idea how to move them.”

“Focus.” Magnus said causing Alec to snort.

“Yeah, because you’re such a wing-flexing-zen-master.”

“Shut up,” Magnus grinned, “Come on, give it a try.”

Alec took a deep breath and tried his hardest to make the wings move, but it seemed useless, they were just hanging limply from his back. It didn’t matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t feel them, it was as though they weren’t even there.

“I can't do it.” He admitted after a few minutes of useless straining to feel the protrusions from his shoulder blades. “I can't _feel_ them. How can I move something I can't feel?”

“Maybe it will come to you, you might just need practice.” Magnus said gently.

“I don’t want practice!” Alec exploded. “I want to get rid of these freakish things that are stuck to me, I want to find Carlstone and make him fix this mess, I want to at least be able to hide them so I can go out in public, I want to control them while I'm stuck with them. At least then I won’t run the risk of accidently flexing them and causing mass destruction wherever I go!”

Magnus took a mental step back, as he carefully tried to judge the situation. Just moments ago, Alec had been relatively calm and eager enough to attempt to move the wings, but then all of a sudden his mood had dropped and he was on the verge of tears and looked as though he was going to lose it at any moment.

“Shh, it’s alright, we don’t have to do anything that you don’t want.” Magnus soothed as he gently pulled Alec towards his chest and held him tightly. “There is nothing freaking about you, or the wings, and we can't make Carlstone ‘fix you’ because you're not broken. Of course we’ll work on a way to conceal the wings so you can go outside. I have no intentions of forcing you to spend the rest of your life indoors.”

Alec sniffed slightly from where his face was buried in Magnus’ neck. “And the mass destruction?” he asked quietly.

“What else would my magic be for?” Magnus said with false cheer, he needed to appear positive if Alec was to feel better about this situation.

“I’m pretty sure that you weren’t born a warlock just so that you could clean up after your disastrous boyfriend.” Alec sighed.

“Maybe, maybe not. However, I like cleaning up after my incredibly _handsome_ boyfriend.” Magnus preened, before tacking on, “Who is by no means disastrous.”

Just as Alec was about to reply, they both heard a loud knocking on the front door to the apartment, and then the automatic opening of said door.

Magnus was on his feet instantly, wrapping his robe around himself and cautiously moving towards the bedroom door. Alec was quick on his heels, only pausing to tug on a pair of loose sweatpants that were lying beside the bed.

“Your weapons are all in the kitchen, aren’t they?” Magnus muttered, staring at Alec’s empty hands.

“I was a bit distracted yesterday.” Alec said curtly.

“I was blaming you, don’t be so touchy, Alexander.” Magnus sighed. “Stay behind me, just in case it’s somebody associated with Carlstone.”

Alec paled and shuffled so that he was half hidden by Magnus. Not that it would have mattered anyway as the giant black wings were a definite giveaway.

“If we can get to the kitchen, I can get my bow.” Alec whispered.

“Too risky.” Magnus said. “We need to know who is in the apartment.”

“I’m not an invalid, Magnus. I can help.” Alec practically growled.

Magnus sighed. There was the irrational anger again.

“I never called you an invalid.”

“You guys are so lucky that I'm not here to kill you.” A familiar voice called out. “You’re too loud.”

“Isabelle?” Alec said incredulously. “What are you doing here?”

“Alec, I found something.” Isabelle said.

“Found something? Found what?” Alec said, forgetting his previous irritation.

“I didn’t really sleep well because I kept thinking about this whole situation and I realised something.” Isabelle said. “We’ve been looking into a lot of the facts about angels that are known to the shadowhunters, which is admittedly not a lot of information, and we were also looking for similar situations to yours which I think we all know probably don’t exist.”

“What did you find?” Magnus asked.                                                            

“I started looking into the lore, and I found quite a lot. Now, I know that a lot of it probably won’t be true as there is so many theories out there and a lot of it has been made up. But there are a few things I found that _are_ relevant.” Isabelle said and she raked through the shoulder bag she had, only to pull out a decrepit looking book. “This is a diary from one of the first generations of shadowhunters and guess what? It’s all about the angels and Raziel. It was claimed to be the ramblings of a madman, but I flicked through a few pages and I think it might be the real deal.”

“Let me see it.” Alec demanded urgently.

“Nope.” Isabelle sang, shoving it back in her bag. “First of all I want coffee and breakfast and you to chill out a bit.”

“I’m not going to ‘chill out’.” Alec griped. “How can we be sure that this book is any use, why should we waste time on breakfast when we could be figuring out this problem?”

“Did you know that young angels often suffer from mood swings?” Isabelle asked innocently.

Magnus tried to cover a laugh. “Maybe we should get your sister her coffee, it seems her little book may have something to it after all.”

Alec glowered at their backs as they strolled into the kitchen snickering. Oh well, he supposed he could use some caffeine, and maybe that book would be able to help him get rid of the wings, if not there was always the _other option._ He didn’t want to think about that yet though, that was purely a last resort situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! :)


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own any recognisable content.

Ten minutes later Alec, Isabelle and Magnus were sitting around the table in the kitchen, three mugs of steaming coffee in front of them. Isabelle was happily tucking into a giant stack of pancakes that Magnus had snapped out of a café in Tennessee and Magnus himself was nibbling on a breakfast muffin. The two of them were trying their hardest to keep their expressions as neutral as possible but it was difficult as Alec seemed to be trying to murder his coffee with his glare. He had refused breakfast, opting instead to glower at everything he could see, much to the amusement of his sister and boyfriend.

“Can I at least look at the book while you're eating?” Alec asked irritably.

“Nope, I already know that you’ll focus on the most negative aspects and believe them to be the truths and you’ll believe the positive points to be false.” Isabelle smirked.

Alec huffed in annoyance and proceeded to continue his staring competition with his coffee, until Isabelle finally finished her last bite of pancakes.

“Now?” Alec asked.

“Two seconds.” Isabelle murmured and proceeded to drag her finger across the syrupy mess that was left on her plate.

“Seriously?” Alec asked. “You going to lick the damn plate now?”

“So touchy.” Isabelle grinned. “Must have something to do with the mood swings, what do you think Magnus?”

“I’m not answering that question.” Magnus said as he shoved the rest of his muffin into his mouth, preventing him from saying anything further.

“The book mentioned mood swings?” Alec asked Isabelle.

“Diary.” Isabelle corrected him. “And yes, just not in so many words.”

“What do you mean?” Alec asked.

“Here,” she said and she flipped through the book looking for a specific page and laid it on the table in front of Alec and Magnus, “read this page.”

_A young angel is a fickle being, or so I have discovered, the shadowhunters at the Edinburgh Institute do not seem to take any interest in what I have to say, but in the long run it shall be their loss. After all, I am the one who has met many a young angel. I spoke to one just last week, and we actually managed to talk for an hour before he thought I was ‘giving him a peculiar look’ and then he and I began to argue, and he flew off before we could make amends._

_I was actually rather impressed. It was the longest I have managed to converse with the younger angels without them taking offense and turning up their noses at the most bizarre of things, which means that I am either improving at communicating with the volatile fledglings or this particular angel was nearing the age in which the rampant emotions and hormones begin to settle._

_During my conversation I managed to learn a great deal about the emotional affair of the younglings. It appears that the younger the angel, the more intensely they feel. They are balanced on a fine wire, a small comment or look can tip them either way. When they are happy, they are practically on top of the world, when they are angry, it would be wise to hide for a few weeks. I was also told something that I don’t believe the angel was meant to tell me, after all he lost his temper after telling me this, but here it is:_

_Sadness can kill young angels._

_It’s insane to think about. He told me about an extremely young angel, only a few days old, who was attacked by rogue shadowhunters his family were brutally tortured in front of him and then they were taken, the angel did not seem to know what happened to them, I can only assume that they vanished without a trace. The fledgling proceeded to sink into a depression that slowly destroyed him internally until he was but a shell of an angel, his wings moulted and he became emancipated and frail. Eventually one day the fledgling simply died, his heart stopped._

_Can you believe it? An immortal being, murdered by grief, slowly and agonisingly._

_Would it have been better for the fledgling to have been taken alongside his family?_

_I do not know. I intend to learn as much as I can, with all these rogue shadowhunters attacking angels, I will not be surprised if they do not return to our realm. I do not understand why some Nephilim have decided that angels are equivalent to demons, we are their descendants!_

“That makes no sense, why would shadowhunters hunt the angels?” Alec asked.

“Really?” Isabelle asked. “ _That’s_ the part you decided to focus on? Not the fact that you are a young angel whose mood swings could kill him?”

“There’s no guarantee of that.” Magnus piped up quickly, glancing at the fearful expression on Alec’s face. “Maybe we should take it all with a pinch of salt, after all, Alec is a Nephilim with enhanced angelic abilities, and there is always the possibility that this is not totally accurate for Alec.”

“Is it not better to take this seriously?” Isabelle asked. “I mean, it is life threatening, and Alec has already been suffering from mood swings. He’s a grouchy asshole.”

“Hey!” Alec exclaimed indignantly. “I’m not grouchy!”

“That’s great, Alec, you almost convinced me that time.” Isabelle snorted.

“If we are taking this seriously, maybe it isn’t such a great idea to try and rile up the fledgling.” Magnus said, it would have been sweet if Alec hadn’t spotted the shit-eating grin on his face.

 “Did you really just call me a fledgling?” Alec asked him.

“That’s what the book called you. Plus, if a young angel is called a fledgling, isn’t that what you are?” Magnus murmured.

“No.” Alec said, before hesitating. “Maybe? Yes. I don’t know. I have no idea what I am.”

“You’re Alec, and that’s all that matters until we figure this out.” Isabelle said confidently. “Jace is out trying to find a trail on Carlstone, so hopefully we can deal with the threats of someone coming back for you whilst we focus on you adjusting.”

“So what else do you have in that book of yours?” Alec asked quietly.

“It’s a diary.” Isabelle repeated.

“Fine, diary, does it really matter?” Alec asked in irritation.

“It does if you want information from me.” Isabelle smirked.

“What else did you find, Izzy?” Alec asked with forced calm.

“Oh! There was something about hiding your wings.” Isabelle grinned.

“Would it not have been better to open with that?” Magnus asked.

“No way! If Alec is wired to fly off the handle at the smallest of things, I would rather make sure that we are all aware of the possibility.” Isabelle said.

“Alright, I see your point, I was starting to wonder whether he had been possessed by something.” Magnus said jokingly.

“Shut up.” Alec mumbled as his cheeks started to turn red. “I don’t mean to be so… y’know.”

“We know, Alec, we’re just winding you up, now stop being so touchy and I’ll show you some more.” Isabelle scolded as she haughtily flicked through the book until she found what she was looking for. “There we go!”

Alec and Magnus simultaneously leaned in to read the newest page, this one was further on in the book than the page about fledglings had been.

_Today I asked the angel her name, as usual she refused to answer, I am beginning to realise that whilst I have met more angels than humans, I will never know the name of an angel, I do not know why they refuse to tell me their names. Perhaps to know an angel’s name is a way to control it to an extent. I am determined to find out an angel’s name before the day I die, or at least learn for sure why they will not tell me._

_Whilst I did not learn her name, the angel did teach me something. She taught me that angels are hiding in the everyday world. I am beginning to wonder how many angels I have actually met without realising it. I appears that they can hide their wings at will._

_This is difficult to do, especially for fledglings who have little control over their wings as it is, but a mature angel can retract their wings into their back and therefore walk around with normal humans. I was intrigued about this, mostly due to the fact that when a fledgling first gets their wings it is extremely painful. Therefore this made me wonder whether angels go through that agony every single time they want to hide themselves amongst the mundanes._

_I asked the angel this and she surprisingly answered. I'm sure I’ve mentioned it before but angels really are fickle. She told me that the first few times that an angel disguises their wings, they go through the immense pain, however it lessens each time until it becomes tolerable. Despite everything, the pain never goes away fully. I found this hard to believe, these ethereal beings go through such torment, such hell – for lack of a better term – all so that they can hide themselves?_

_The angel told me that younglings have problems due to their volatile emotions, she said that it takes a lot of focus to make sure that they have full control over their wings, therefore they often get frustrated and lose control before they can fully retract their wings, the angel even told me that she had seen cases of a fledgling losing concentration halfway through retracting their wings, resulting in an immense amount of agony, worse than when they first get their wings, it can go one of three ways in this event. The wings can return to normal, complete their retraction or become stuck halfway. It is rare for them to get stuck, however the pain that results from this has been known to drive angels insane if it is not corrected immediately._

_I remain unsure as to the exact mechanics regarding the retraction of wings, I was merely told that it was different for every angel, but in order to learn how to do it, angels had to be able to fully control their wings. I will continue to question the angels and update this journal as I continue to discover more information._

“Well that was about as useful as Church.” Alec groaned. “Wing retraction sounds like a bizarre medical problem for birds.”

“So maybe we don’t know how you can do it, but we do know that it’s possible.” Magnus said. “I’m thinking that this book is a lot more legitimate than you originally thought, Isabelle.”

“I’d probably agree with that.” Isabelle grinned. “See, Alec, we’ll have you back home in no time at all!”

“I don’t know about this.” Alec said carefully, gauging Magnus and Isabelle’s expressions carefully. “I don’t know if this will be a good idea.”

“Why wouldn’t it?” Isabelle asked. “You’ll be able to come back to the Institute and our parents won’t be suspicious, which means no Clave involvement. It’s a win-win situation.”

“Except for the fact that I have to be able to control my wings first of all, which I can't, and it’s going to be extremely painful. I don’t want to go through that again! It was awful the first time!” Alec exploded furiously. Why was she insisting on this? She was his sister, did she really want to cause him pain so badly?

“Alec, deep breaths.” Magnus said, eyeing his boyfriend carefully and the younger shook with anger, and Magnus would put money on the fact that he was trembling with fear too. He would never forget the look that Alec had in his eyes when he was screaming for the pain to end. Was that really only the previous day?

“She wants to hurt me.” Alec said, glaring at Isabelle.

“No, she doesn’t, neither of us do. We’re on _your_ side. We only want what is best for you, and honestly, this will be the best thing for you.” Magnus soothed, it was like speaking to a spooked horse.

“How?” Alec spat out. “How will this be the best thing for me?”

“Look at it this way; if Carlstone gets close to you and sees you looking like a regular old shadowhunter, he might think that he failed at enhancing your DNA, he might think that you’re no different and leave you alone.” Magnus suggested.

“And me living at the Institute would support this?” Alec asked tentatively.

“Well, he might get suspicious if he sees that you’ve moved out for no apparent reason. Or if he sees two giant, black wings on your back.” Isabelle said.

“Alright, alright, I get your point.” Alec sighed. “I’m really sorry I snapped at you two.”

“It’s alright, I was expecting it.” Isabelle smirked. “That’s kind of proved my point about leading with the mood swings page.”

“Plus, I’ve been dealing with you all night so I’m not too surprised either.” Magnus chuckled.

“I’m still sorry about it,” Alec sighed, “and I guess I’m willing to give this a go. I suppose it’ll be better to deal with this wing issue than ignore it.”

“We’ll take our time, Alec, we won’t rush this.” Magnus promised. “After all, the book said you need to learn how to control your wings first, and that may take some time.”

“We tried that, I couldn’t do it.” Alec said forlornly.

“You tried?” Isabelle asked, Magnus and Alec ignored her.

“You got annoyed Alec, you couldn’t do it first time and you lost your temper.” Magnus said gently. “Which, according to the book, is very common and one of the main reasons why fledglings have a problem controlling their wings.”

“I have a feeling that ‘fledgling’ is going to be my new nickname.” Alec said dryly.

“It’s cute, and fitting.” Isabelle smirked.

“I am not cute!” Alec said indignantly.

“Sure you aren’t.” Magnus said condescendingly. “Just like I am not the high warlock of Brooklyn.”

“Sarcasm is not becoming of you, Magnus.” Alec sniped.

“Whatever you say, Fledgling.” Magnus grinned.

Alec wanted to hit him for that comment, just a slap to the arm, nothing that would hurt him…too much. That asshole.

“Oh, if only looks could kill.” Isabelle said with a laugh.

“I’d be dead.” Magnus said.

“Wait no, I don’t want that.” Alec said as a sudden wave of guilt swept over him, he had pretty much wanted to slap Magnus for a stupid comment. It hadn’t been his fault, he was just joking, it was his way of dealing with all of this.

He was the worst boyfriend ever, he felt terrible. He didn’t want Magnus to die, he would never want that, why had he even thought about such a thing? He decided he hated that saying, ‘if looks could kill’, it was the worst, why would anybody want to harm people with their minds? Alec didn’t want to hurt Magnus, not even a little bit, he had been overreacting. He loved Magnus! He loved him more than anything else in his life.

“-lec! Alec! Are you listening?” Isabelle was snapping her fingers in front of Alec’s face.

“Alec, look at me.” Magnus’ deep voice roused Alec from his mind.

“I’m sorry!” Alec blurted out. “I didn’t mean it!”

“I know, we were joking.” Magnus said gently.

“But I glared at you, and I wanted to slap you because you annoyed me and-” he was cut off by Magnus’ laugh.

“What?” Alec asked, unnerved.

Magnus reached over and flicked his nose.

“Do you hate me for doing that?” He asked.

“What? No. you only flicked my nose.” Alec said.

“Were you intending to punch me in the face?” Magnus asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No!” Alec almost shouted, “I was going to slap your arm.”

“Do you slap Jace or Isabelle’s arm when they irritate you?” Magnus asked.

“Sometimes, or the back of their head.” Alec said, wondering where Magnus was going with this.

“So it’s more of a thing you do out of fondness rather than malice?” Magnus asked.

“I guess so, but I still-”

“No, Alec. Stop beating yourself up for nothing.” Magnus groaned. “It’s not your fault, your emotions are a little whacked out just now, its normal for you to overreact sometimes.”

“It’s annoying.” Alec said as he scrunched his nose up. “I feel like a teenager going through puberty all over again.”

“Well, isn’t that what you are?” Isabelle asked.

“Excuse me?” Alec and Magnus asked at the same time, completely horrified for different reasons.

“No,” Isabelle laughed, “I don’t mean it like that, I mean you’re essentially going through angel puberty.”

“Oh thank god.” Magnus muttered causing Isabelle to burst into laughter.

“Alright, enough talk of puberty, it was bad enough going through it once, I’d rather focus on other things than going through it a second time.” Alec said.

“Why don’t you and Magnus go work on controlling those flappers of yours, I’ll keep reading through this _diary_ for more information.” Isabelle said with a dismissive wave.

“Flappers?” Alec asked in horror, he did _not_ want that term to catch on, he would much prefer to be called Fledgling.

“I have a feeling you won’t win against her,” Magnus smirked. “Come on, love, let’s focus on your control!”

Alec allowed Magnus to pull him out of the kitchen. It was disconcerting, he felt a flash of affection for Magnus and meanwhile felt a spark of irritation for Isabelle. These moods were going to drive him insane. He just hoped that Jace found something, or Isabelle found out how long this ‘angel puberty’ was going to last. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates so close together? what the hell? The world must be ending! 
> 
> Follow me on tumblr for malec oneshots, it's 'runedmalec'


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - as usual, if you recognise it, it isn't mine

“This is not good enough.” The words were spoken quietly as though they were a gentle whisper or as if a parent were reading their child a bedroom story. There was nothing about the way that they were spoken that could have explain the sudden tension in the room.

“Sir, we are sorry, we did not intend to let the shadowhunters infiltrate the-“

“Enough.” Carlstone murmured, once again speaking gently, and the man who had tried to explain himself fell silent immediately. “I may be a mundane, but it appears as though you are forgetting who it is you’re dealing with here.”

“You’re right, I was out of line, Sir.” The man spoke again.

“Indeed. Now, I don’t want excuses for why the shadowhunters were able to recover my experiment, what I want is for you to get it back.” Carlstone said, an angry look twisted his face and his voice became steadily louder. “I want it back!”

“We have been watching his home ever since he escaped, he has not returned to it.” A woman spoke up. “Alec Lightwood’s sister and Parabatai have each returned however the experiment himself is currently missing.”

“He is alive.” The man spoke again. “The boy and girl were not overly upset, they seemed distressed but they were not grieving their brother.”

“That is a relief.” Carlstone said. “The experiment showed such promise, it would be a shame to attempt to find another shadowhunter that would be so compatible with the serum.”

“We will find him.” The woman vowed.

“See that you do. I want it returned in one piece, I have a number of clients interested in buying it. It is going to make me rich.” Carlstone grinned.

“Wh- What do they want the boy for?” The man asked hesitantly.

“I do not know, or care, all I am aware of is the hefty sum they’re offering me.” Carlstone said flippantly.

“But he is just a boy, a child. What if they hurt him?” The man asked.

“I think that you should shut up before you say something that cannot be taken back, Stenisling.” Carlstone growled. “The experiment is mine, I made it, therefore it is mine to own. I want it back to sell, whatever it’s next owner does to it is completely up to them. Start by trailing the Parabatai and sibling, they will lead you to it.”

Stenisling nodded and fell silent, but he knew it was too late. He had overstepped his mark and he would have to watch his back for the undetermined future. Nobody questioned Carlstone.

-

“This is completely bizarre and I don’t understand how it’s going to help anything.” Alec muttered.

Magnus stifled a sigh and forced a patient smile onto his face, this wasn’t Alec’s fault, Alec didn’t ask for wings and he certainly didn’t ask to be forcefully changed into some form of an angel by Carlstone, it was perfectly normal for him to resist Magnus’ help. Not to mention that Alec was liable to stomp his foot and pout like a five year old because of the new intense emotions, not that he had done that but Magnus would pay to see it.

“Be patient Alec, I’ve explained this to you already.” Magnus said. “Focus on what I’m doing.”

Alec sighed moodily and closed his eyes, Magnus was standing on top of the coffee table behind him, gripping one of Alec’s wings in two hand and slowly flexing it inwards and outwards. It was irritating Alec beyond belief, not to mention the fact that Magnus kept accidently pulling on the feathers when he moved the wing, and it was getting tiring, he could really use a nap.

“I am focusing and it’s damn annoying.” Alec grumbled.

“You’re not meant to focus on me, focus on yourself. Which muscles are being moved when I’m moving your wing? Do you think you can move the muscles yourself?”

“I don’t know.” Alec sighed. “I think I can kind of feel the muscles that are moving but I have no idea how to use them, they don’t feel the same as my other muscles.”

“How so?” Magnus asked.

“I- Like, you know how when you’re working out you know exactly which muscles to engage and it’s pretty much just instinct?”

“Obviously.” Magnus said dryly.

“It’s nothing like that, I know where the muscles are but I don’t know how to move them.” Alec said.

“I think the only thing you can do is keep trying.” Magnus said. “I know it’s not the greatest help in the world, but it’s the only thing I can think of.”

“It’s not your fault, Magnus.” Alec said.

“Guys, I’ve found some more things that may be useful!” Isabelle exclaimed as she ran into the living room, the small book was clutched in her hand.

“Brilliant, anything to take a break from making absolutely no progress.” Alec sighed.

“We’ve only been at it for a few hours.” Magnus said, as if that made any difference.

“Well, you’ll be glad to know that Jace is going to speak to Clary and Simon today, he’s not going to tell them about you yet, but he is going to try and get them to research some things. He wants Simon to keep an eye out in the vamp community for any mentions of Carlstone.” Isabelle said.

“You don’t think the vampires would work with a mundane?” Magnus asked. “Carlstone has already targeted the vampires, they’d want revenge before anything else.”

“Who says they’re doing it willingly?” Isabelle shrugged. “Besides the may not be working with him, they might just be looking into him because he’s hurt vamps.”

“You have a point, fine, the daylighter might be useful for once.” Magnus said.

“I’m more interested in what it is you’ve found in your little book.” Alec said.

“It’s a _diary_ , and I’ve learnt loads. Especially about what will happen around about now, as well as in the future.” Isabelle said.

“The future?” Magnus asked.

“Yeah, it turns out that Alec isn’t finished changing just yet. The wings were just the initial change. Although according to the diary they are meant to be the final change.”

“Why did they come out first then?” Alec asked and at the same time Magnus spoke up.

“What other changes are there?”

“The truth is that I don’t know why your wings popped out first, Alec, but I can tell you that according to the diary the rest of the changes aren’t really noticeable to others.”

“What does that mean? Will I still notice them?” Alec asked.

“Definitely. The other changes will mainly be to your sight, hearing, endurance and general health.” Isabelle said.

“Enhanced abilities.” Magnus muttered with a raised eyebrow.

“Exactly.” Isabelle said. “Alec’s sight will be greatly improved and you’ll see better when it gets dark too, your hearing will be impeccable and you will definitely be able to outperform Jace and I in training.”

“Like that’s difficult.” Alec snorted.

“Shut up.” Isabelle said without any heat. “Lastly, you won't really get sick, your immune system will be terrific. In fact, you’ll miss out on all the ‘human diseases’.”

“Wait,” Magnus said, “do you mean?”

“I think so.” Isabelle muttered uncertainly. “Depends on your definition though.”

“What are you two talking about?” Alec demanded.

“Alexander, some people view aging as a disease.” Magnus said.

“Oh. Right of course. Wait, but that means-” Alec faltered. “Oh!”

“And he’s got it.” Isabelle chuckled.

“That’s impossible.” Alec muttered.

“Um, darling I am right here you know?” Magnus asked with a laugh.

“Yeah, but you’re you, and I’m not cut out to live forever, why me? I’m going to be hopeless at this.” Alec sighed. “Magnus, you’re good at being flexible with the times, but I'm not even good at fitting in with society _now_ , how will I manage to keep adjusting?”

“Who says you need to fit in?” Magnus asked. “As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather have you than some sheep who goes along with what everyone else wants.”

“Now that is just too sickening, I don’t need to listen to my brother be sweet talked, I am out of here. I’ll see you two lovebirds later.” Isabelle grumbled. “I’ll leave the diary in case you want to flick through it, I’m not even half way yet, there could be more.”

“Thank Isabelle.” Magnus said.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t thank me yet. I’ll be bringing Jace back with me.” Isabelle smirked.

“Which probably means Clary and the vampire too.” Magnus realised.

“It’s possible.” Isabelle conceded.

“Anyways, I’m off, you two have a lot to talk about.” Isabelle grinned and left the room with a suggestive grin that mad Alec vow to annihilate her in their next training session. If he ever had another training session.

“Look, we’ve been focussing on this for too long, why don’t we do something else?” Magnus said, wanting to get rid of the lost puppy look on Alec’s face.

“Like what?” Alec asked.

“Well, you have seen far too few movies, which is shocking and a travesty, so I suggest we start with a movie and popcorn. After all, if you’re going to be with me forever, you really need to start understanding my references.” Magnus said, pulling Alec to the sofa, and gently pushing him onto it.

“Are you at least going to tell me what movie we’re watching?” Alec asked, slightly distracted by the idea of having Magnus by his side forever.

“Nope, it’s a surprise, you just have to worry about paying attention and eating popcorn, there will be a quiz at the end.” Magnus joked.

“On what, the popcorn or the movie?” Alec muttered before settling into Magnus’ side and turning his attention to the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, we'll be seeing Clary and Simon in the next episode! Let me know what you think :)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - I don't own.

“Alec, I’m so sorry.” Magnus choked out from between blood splattered lips.

Alec dropped to his knees beside the injured warlock instantly.

“No, no, no, don’t apologise, you're going to be ok. Right? You're going to be fine.” Alec whispered frantically as his hands hovered over Magnus’ trembling body, he needed to put pressure on the wound, but which wound? There were too many. Which one was the worst?

“Alec, look at me.” Magnus said calmly. Alec’s tear filled eyes met Magnus’ and he wondered how the warlock could look so calm at a time like this. “It’s too late.”

“No, it’s not!” Alec shouted. “Just tell me what to do, how do I stop the bleeding?”

“You can’t.” Magnus said simply. “I’ve lost too much blood. Even warlocks can die.”

“No, you're not leaving me, not like this.” Alec said. “I don’t want you to go.”

“Please remember that I love you. Never forget that, Alexander.” Magnus said earnestly.

“I won't, I love you too, but you can't go.” Alec said tearfully. “We didn’t have enough time together, it’s not fair and I wasted so much time at the beginning when I tried to deny that I was in love with you and now I’m paying for it.”

“Don’t focus on the regrets, focus on the good times we’ve had together.” Magnus whispered, Alec could hear his voice getting quieter and his breathing becoming more and more laboured.

“It wasn’t long enough.” Alec whispered. “I don’t want to live forever without you.”

Alec woke up with a jerk that sent the warlock that had previously been sprawled across his chest to the floor with a thump. A light sheen of sweat covered his skin and he was breathing heavily, as though he had just finished a difficult training session with Jace and Isabelle.

“Alec?” Magnus asked in confusion. “Are you ok?”

“Magnus, you're alright.” Alec said.

“Of course I am, we were just taking a nap.” Magnus said, pulling himself up from the floor and turning to face his shadowhunter.

“I love you.” Alec said breathlessly.

“I love you too, darling.” Magnus said, pulling Alec towards him. “What’s gotten into you? You're shaking.”

“It was just a dream.” Alec said.

“What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really, it just made me realise something important.” Alec said. Magnus raised an eyebrow but waited patiently for Alec to speak. “I’m scared of the fact I won't age.”

“Ah.” Magnus said, he understood that sentiment perfectly. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Alec nodded quickly.

“I’m scared too, even more so since I met you.” Magnus said. “I think the problem with living forever is that you have a longer time to live without the people you love.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Alec said. “I can't live without the people I love, and my mother would tell me to grow up and get over it because everyone dies at some point and it’s my job as a shadowhunter to keep fighting the rogue downworlders. She’d tell me to get over my weakness, but that was easier when I knew that my life would be limited too.”

“Your mother is wrong about a lot of things, Alexander. This is no different, she doesn’t understand you the way I do or the way Jace and Isabelle do. It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. You have a group of people who you’d do anything for, and they would do anything for you. That’s not a weakness in my book.”

“Have I told you that I love you?” Alec asked Magnus with a small smile.

“Yes, but I still love hearing you say it.” Magnus said.

“I love you.”

“Love you too, and I would love to spend the rest of the afternoon sitting here with you, but unfortunately your sister phone shortly after you fell asleep and she’s planning on bringing Simon and Clary over to help out.”

“I think that’s a good idea.” Alec said after a moment of silence. “We need to get a move on with this, my parents aren’t going to buy our cover ups for much longer.”

“I guess that means we’re back to practicing your control.” Magnus smirked.

“I think you mean trying to gain some control, there’s nothing there to practice yet.” Alec corrected him.

“Then you need to get off your behind and get moving. We have work to do.”

-

“Would you man up already?” The woman asked him with irritation in her voice.

“This is wrong.” Stenisling said. “You have children Corsyth, don’t you feel guilty?”

“No, because I know my children are human.” Corsyth said bluntly.

“The boy is human, and he’s young, the same age as your youngest daughter if I’m not mistaken.” Stenisling said.

“What’s your point? It’s an experiment, nothing more, nothing less.” Corsyth said. “And, he’s going to make us rich.”

“Aren’t you worried about what’s going to happen to the boy when he sells him?” Stenisling asked. “Will they hurt him? Kill him? Do something worse?”

“I don’t know or care.” Corsyth replied. “Now shut up, the Lightwood girl is in sight.”

Isabelle Lightwood was flanked by the familiar blond that Stenisling knew to be Jace Herondale but he did not recognise the other two who were with him. A short red haired girl and a lanky boy with glasses.

“It’s the daylighter.” Corsyth grinned.

“The what?”

“The vampire who can go outside in daylight. Carlstone is going to be thrilled when he finds out that the daylighter is with the experiment.” Corsyth grinned in excitement.

“Why does Carlstone want the vampire?”

“Are you kidding?” Asked Stenisling incredulously. “No one knows why that vampire can walk around in daylight so if Carlstone can get a hold of him and work it out he’ll be famous. All the vampires will want to know the secret.”

“That sounds dangerous. We’re already in a pickle with the vampires as it is, if we try lording anything over them, they could just kill us without a second thought.” Stenisling sighed.

“They won't.” Corsyth promised. “They want to go outside in the daytime more than they want us dead.”

“I still don’t like this.”

“You don’t like anything.” Corsyth shrugged. “Why are you here?”

“To help Carlstone.”

“No, there’s more to it than that. You’re disagreeing with everything he’s doing, there’s obviously an ulterior motive.”

“There isn’t, and even if there was, why would I tell you?” Stenisling asked.

“Fair play, but I will figure it out.” Corsyth promised.

“Why are you here?”

“Because I enjoy this.” Corsyth said with a grin. “I like the look of fear on their faces when they finally realise that we’ve won and that the rest of their life is going to be controlled by whoever buys them.”

“Carlstone has done this before.” Stenisling said. “But he said that this one was special. He said that he needed him back because he was the first success.”

“He is. Alexander Lightwood is the sixteenth shadowhunter that has been changed, but he is the first to survive.” Corsyth shrugged. “All the others died within a few hours of receiving the serum.”

“But none of the werewolves or vampires died, even that fae survived.” Stenisling said.

“Yes, but they were then put down because they lost their humanity, fortunately that is not a problem for the Nephilim.”

Corsyth paused and looked around incredulously.

“Do you realise where we are going?” She asked.

“No, should I? I’m not that great with Brooklyn.” Stenisling answered.

“We’re near to Magnus Bane’s home, Carlstone is going to be estatic.” Corsyth grinned. “If we can get him the experiment, the daylighter and the high warlock of Brooklyn, he will reward us greatly.”

“I don’t know, this is just sounding as though the boy has more protection than we can handle.” He said looking even more unsure than before.

“Don’t underestimate him.” Corsyth said. “Yes, look, they’re entering his apartment block.”

“If you know where he lives, why doesn’t Carlstone just go and get him?”

“Because now we have leverage.” She said. “There were rumours about the experiment and that warlock but nobody ever managed to confirm anything until now.”

“Rumours?” Stenisling asked. “What sort of rumours?”

“Doesn’t matter. We’ve seen enough, let’s get back and tell Corsyth what we’ve seen.” Stenisling winced at the vindictive pleasure in her voice. She really was just doing this because she wanted to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this seems fairly rushed, I just wanted to get something out because I'm aware it's been a while. Also, my little kitten was killed this week and my mind wasn't completely focused, so I'm sorry if there are any errors or if it's a bit of a let down. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.   
> Follow me on tumblr, it's 'runedmalec'


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

“Wings. You have wings, real feathery wings. Like serious wings, man. I mean I was warned by Izzy but I didn’t expect to see real, genuine wings. This is so awesome.”

“Someone shut him up before I kill him.” Alec muttered as he glared daggers at the babbling vampire who just would not shut up for even a minute.

“Aw, and here I was starting to think that we were bonding.” Simon said with faux sorrow.

“Well, I am in agreement with Simon,” Alec’s least favourite redhead piped up. “It really is amazing and if I wasn’t seeing this right now, I would have never believed Jace when he told me what had happened.”

“It may come as a shock to you all, but I don’t care what you all think, this is not amazing. Or awesome. Or fantastic. This is a pain in my arse and I want rid of them.” Alec said.

“A pain in his _fabulous_ arse.” Magnus muttered unhelpfully. Alec couldn’t bring himself to glare at the sparkly man though, as he was only trying to lighten the mood. Even if it was at Alec’s expense.

“But seriously, dude, you have _wings!_ ” Simon emphasised as though Alec had not truly realised that fact already.

“I’m aware.” Alec said dryly.

“What we actually needed you for was help to research.” Isabelle said to Simon and Clary.

“Research?” Simon asked. “No offence man, but I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Well, you're in the same boat as we are.” Magnus said. “Isabelle was brilliant enough to find a book that seems to be fairly reliable, but I was thinking that we should keep looking at various folklore and myths, there has to be something somewhere.”

“It’s a diary.” Isabelle sighed, honestly why did she even bother?

“What exactly are we looking for though?” Clary asked.

“Anything. Focus mainly on ways that we can help Alec to hide his wings and we can work on it from there.” Magnus said.

“We also need your help.” Jace said to Simon, twisting his face as though the admission had left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Mine? Why the hell would you need my help?” Simon asked.

“We need you to keep an eye out within the vampire community for any mentions of Carlstone or anything that may suggest that a vampire has been taken by someone.” Jace said.

“I don’t know if you’ve realised this yet, but I don’t really have much street credit with the other vampires.” Simon said with a large amount of sarcasm injected into his words.

“Maybe not, but they’re still more likely to listen to you than they would be to listen to us.” Isabelle shrugged.

“No, it’s actually the opposite. They’re all jealous that I can go outside during the day when they can't. They are most definitely not going to forget that when I decide to ask some questions. They all hate me because I can do what they can't.” Simon said seriously, the expression was so different from his usual easy going one, that it knocked Alec for a moment.

“Alright, don’t ask them anything. Just let us know if you overhear anything that may be related to this situation.” Alec said.

“Alec, his questioning may prove to be what we need to find Carlstone.” Jace said.

“No.” Alec said firmly. “It won't. if the vamps knew who was attacking them, they would have already made their move against Carlstone, which only goes to show that they don’t know anything and at the end of the day we need as many people on our side as we can get, so Simon going off and getting himself killed by a bunch of jealous, petty vampires isn’t going to help anyone.”

“Thanks man, I knew you like me.” Simon said.

“Shut up.” Alec replied.

“Just when I thought we were getting close, you go and cut me like this.” Simon said.

“Please, I beg of you all, shut him up.”

“I could ask Luke to keep an ear out.” Clary said.

“That would be good, but don’t say anything about Alexander, just tell him that we’re looking into the matter.” Magnus said.

“Right, of course.” Clary said.

“I myself will ask around a few warlocks that I trust.” Magnus said. “Which gives us an insight into almost all circles.”

“All of them. I will ask the fae, I’m still on good terms with them.” Isabelle said.

“Perfect, and that means you, Alexander, only need to focus on your control.” Magnus smirked.

“Actually,” Isabelle said apologetically, “our parents accepted that you weren’t home last night but I don’t think we’re going to be able to pull the wool over their eyes for much longer. We need to work this out in the next couple of days otherwise we’re going to end up having to tell the truth.”

“We can't.” Alec said urgently. “Izzy we can't tell them anything, please.”

“Alec calm down.” Isabelle said quickly, eyes widening as she took in the sudden panicked change in Alec’s composure as soon as their parents were mentioned.

“No, no, Izzy, don’t tell them anything, they’ll hand me over to the Clave. They’ll let them take me, it’s bad enough that I’m gay but if they find out about this as well, there will be no way that they’ll be able to see me as their son again. Please Izzy, don’t tell them.”

“Alec please, calm down.” Isabelle said.

“I can't, do you realise what the Clave will do to me? Do you even know what they would think? They’d cut me open, I’d be nothing but a tool for them to get answers from.” Alec said pleadingly, ignoring all of his sister’s attempts to calm him down. He was so wound up that his wings decided to ruffle in anxiety.

Alec froze.

“They moved.” He whispered hoarsely.

“They did, but that’s not important right now.” Magnus said, moving to stand in front of his shadowhunter. “Alec, do you really think that we’d let anyone hurt you?”

“Well, you might not have a choice, if the Clave decides to investigate where I’ve disappeared to-”

“Stop.” Magnus said, cutting off Alec. “If the Clave get anywhere near to you, I will open a portal and you and I will go on an extended holiday to a deserted island somewhere along the equator.”

“Really?” Alec asked.

“Of course, you’ll have unlimited time to practice your control, and I will have unlimited time with you. Without interruptions.” Magnus said and winked suggestively causing Alec to flush red.

“I never meant that I wanted to let them hurt you, Alec.” Isabelle whispered. “And there is nothing wrong with you being gay, nothing. I don’t care what anyone tells you. You love Magnus, and he loves you and there is nothing wrong with that at all.”

“Thanks Izzy.” Alec said softly.

“Izzy’s right, and you did it Alec, you moved your wings.” Jace said.

“I don’t think it counts, it wasn’t intentional at all. I was just too wound up and I reacted instinctively, I didn’t mean it.” Alec said looking away.

“It doesn’t matter. It was a start, and we know that your emotions affect the way that your wings. It seems that the stronger your emotions are, the easier it is for you to move your wings.” Magnus said.

“You’ve been approaching this like it’s a task that’s been set for you, but you need to relax and learn to control your emotions.” Isabelle said. “You’ve been distancing yourself from the situation and approaching it from a cold and clinical angle, you need to let yourself calm down and _feel_.”

“That’s easier said than done.” Alec muttered. “I don’t want these wings.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve got them. I’m sorry if that sounds too harsh but it’s the truth.” Jace said. “You need to learn to accept it.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there to help you every step of the way. You're pretty much stuck with me whether you want to be or not.” Magnus said.

“Of course I’ll want you.”

-

“Let me get this straight. You have found my experiment, Magnus Bane and the Daylighter.” Carlstone asked calmly.

“We have definitely found Bane and the vampire. We believe that the experiment is in Bane’s apartment as we saw its sister and parabatai entering the building with a redhead and the daylighter.” Corsyth said.

“It is impossible to enter Bane’s apartment without his permission. His wards are strong and have negative effects against anyone who tries to break through them.” Carlstone said. “We need to lure the experiment out. Catch the daylighter first. At least then it will help us to get the attention of the rest of the group.”

“Would it not be better to go after the experiment’s sister? He would definitely be lured out of the apartment if we did.” Corsyth asked.

“No, I want it to worry. I want it to regret ever escaping, I want to target all its friends and family one by one until it surrenders itself. I want it to know that this is its own fault for escaping. I don’t just want to recapture it. I want to break it.” Carlstone sneered.

“I understand.” Corsyth said.

“Now, where is Stenisling?” Carlstone asked.

“Keeping watch on Bane’s apartment. He is going to monitor everyone who enters and leaves the building.” Corsyth replied.

“Good. He is finally doing something useful.” Carlstone said. “Corsyth, I need you to understand the level of importance that this experiment has. If Stenisling does anything to affect the outcome of the mission, I want you to know that I expect you to deal with him accordingly.”

“Accordingly? You mean…”

“Kill him.” Carlstone said without remorse. “The experiment is the most important thing. I do not care for Stenisling therefore if he begins to become too much of a liability I want you to out a bullet through his brain. I don’t want any second thoughts as they could jeopardise everything.”

“I understand, Sir.” Corsyth said. “I will handle Stenisling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kind words about my kitten, I really appreciate the kindness more than you know. I hope you like this chapter, the next one will be out soon I hope. 
> 
> Follow me on tumblr, it's 'runedmalec'.
> 
> **I'm accepting prompts at the moment. I will write anything and everything you send me. Either send them on tumblr (I accept anon messages) or send them here on AO3.**


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own

It was two days later that Alec noticed some progress. He had been on the phone the phone with Isabelle who was still researching like it was the end of the world and she was the last person available to find a cure and he had moved his wings. Willingly moved his wings, it hadn’t been a reflex or an irritated shuffle this time, it had been a conscious movement. He had been so excited that he had made up a quick excuse to a very confused Isabelle and hung up on her so that he could rush off and find Magnus.

Magnus had taken to spending a lot of time in his little workroom, a small lab where he made potions and designed new spells for his various clientele, he hadn’t wanted to leave Alec alone in the apartment but his duties as the high warlock were building so he had decided to compromise with himself and work from home. Alec had rushed into the little room to see his warlock sitting at the back of the room, head bent over a think book that was covered in runes that Alec didn’t recognise, obviously they weren’t angelic runes.

Alec felt a pang of guilt as he watched Magnus working hard, he hadn’t realised what a massive burden all this must be on the sparkly man, after all he had been so busy trying to get used to his new wings and mourning the loss of his life as he knew it, he hadn’t actually stopped to think about how much of Magnus’ life was changing too, he had his boyfriend suddenly living with him, his boyfriend’s family and friends were constantly in and out the door, he had clients constantly bugging him and he was also trying to help Alec learn how to control his wings. Alec suddenly felt like the worst boyfriend possible, he had been so selfish and too focused on himself to realise how much this situation must have been affecting Magnus. He was just about to sneak out of the room and let Magnus continue in peace when the warlock looked up.

“Alexander.” Magnus said quietly. “I am glad to see you, I hope you’ve come to rescue me from this drab that I’m reading.”

“Um, actually, I was just leaving.” Alec said. “You seem really busy.”

“Not too busy for my favourite shadowhunter, why were you leaving, why don’t you come in and keep me company?” Magnus asked.

“But you have so much work to do, and you’ve been putting it off to help me and you’ll start getting really behind if you stop now for me.” Alec said, his words pouring out in a jumbled mess as he tried to convey how sorry he was for being such an interruption in Magnus’ life.

“Alexander, you need to relax. Your emotions are heightened at the moment which is causing you to overthink things. Yes, I have a lot of work to do, but you’re not stopping me from doing it. I spend time with you because I want to, not because I feel some sort of obligation to.  Anyways if the work was getting too much I would stop taking as many clients as I do now.” Magnus explained. “I have all the control in my business, I chose the clients, the prices and the deadlines. So calm down, and get your gorgeous ass over here.”

Alec was very aware of the heat of red that had flushed up his cheeks from his neck as he slunk over to Magnus, pulling up a chair beside him and glancing curiously at the runes on the page.

“What is that?” He asked, trying to decipher it. “They look like angelic runes in a sense but I don’t recognise any of them.”

“That’s because they’re demonic runes.” Magnus answered.

“Demons have runes?” Alec asked in shock.

“Of course they do, how do you think they communicated before the English language was invented?” Magnus looked at Alec’s wide eyes. “You do know that demons were on the earth long before humans were, right?”

“It seems that my classes in Idris were slightly lacking.” Alec sighed. “To be honest, all we really know about downworlders is the bare minimum to help us get by, that and how to kill them.”

“I am constantly amazed by how gentle you are whenever you bring up your childhood and education.” Magnus muttered. “You are designed to be a killer, you are trained to kill downworlders and yet here you are cuddled up to one and asking questions about demonic runes.”

“Well you’re comfy.” Alec said, as if that was the only reason why he was cuddled up to the warlock. “How did you learn those runes?”

“I’m a warlock, I’m half demon, and we are born knowing these runes. This isn’t a challenge for me to translate, but if I take my time and make my client think it is, then I can charge them more.” Magnus said with a cheeky grin.

Alec laughed softly and nuzzled into Magnus’ neck, breathing in the familiar scent of sandalwood that seemed to calm him more than anything else.

“Not that I don’t enjoy your company, love, but it kind of seemed like you came through here with a purpose earlier.” Magnus murmured as he flicked a page over.

“I did actually, but it can wait till you're finished.” Alec said, a spear of excitement running through him as he remembered that he had managed to move his wings willingly, he couldn’t wait to see Magnus’ reaction, he just hoped that it wasn’t a fluke and that he could do it again.

“Don’t worry, I only have a few chapters left to translate and I still have two weeks to do it. It can wait.” Magnus said as he closed the book. “I’d rather know what you want to tell me.”

“Alright then.” Alec said with a shrug as he pulled away from Magnus’ shoulder to look into those beautiful amber eyes that he loved so dearly. “I moved my wings. On purpose.”

“Really?” Magnus asked, his eyes widening as a huge grin spread across his face. “That’s amazing, Alexander, can I see?”

Alec bit his lip to hide his amusement at Magnus’ reaction, it was funny to see him acting even more excited than the actual owner of the wings.

“Sure, just give me a moment, I’m not sure if it will work straight away.” Alec said.

Magnus nodded eagerly and Alec closed his eyes so that he could concentrate without being distracted by the lovely feline eyes that were trained on him. He really ought to thank Magnus as it was the focus on the muscles that Magnus had moved while manipulating his wings the other day that had helped Alec to work out how to move the wings. He focused on the muscles that he knew needed to move and forced his body to tense them. As soon as they did as Alec wished the wings on his back lifted and seemed to flex themselves before he then allowed them and his muscles to relax. He was panting as though he had just sprinted a kilometre and had a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead, but he also had a proud grin on his face.

“Well done, darling.” Magnus said and he placed a gentle kiss on Alec’s lips, it was soft and loving and left Alec wishing for more, but Magnus had pulled away too quickly for Alec to take what he wanted. “I am so proud of you.”

“It’s still pretty difficult to do, but I think it might become easier with time, I guess it’s just like training any other muscle.” Alec said.

“If anyone can do it, it’s going to be you.” Magnus said confidently, he had faith in his Nephilim. “After all, you’ve had these wings less than a week and here you are already managing to control them, even if it’s only a little, you’ll be walking about the Institute again in no time at all.”

“That’s good, ‘cause I’m not sure how much longer Izzy’s going to be able to stop our parents from getting suspicious.” Alec said. “I’m actually surprised she’s managed this long.”

“She must be very convincing.” Magnus said with a false smile. He already knew the truth, Isabelle had admitted it to him just yesterday and it was making him furious beyond belief. He would never tell Alec though, he could never let the gentle hearted Nephilim know that his parents hadn’t even noticed his absence, much less commented on it.

“Yeah, her acting must have improved from when we were kids, she couldn’t lie to save her life back then.” Alec chuckled and Magnus forced a laugh, he couldn’t let Alec know because it would kill him, especially when Magnus and Isabelle both suspected that the lack of interest was stemming from the fact that Alec was gay and in a relationship with a male downworlder.

“You should have more faith in your sister, I’m sure she’s built up a range of excuses after all her late night adventures of her own.” Magnus grinned, shaking away the negative thoughts.

“I really don’t want to think about Izzy’s adventures.” Alec said with a pout.

“Why not?” Magnus asked. “She seems extremely interested in ours.”

“Magnus!” Alec scolded, slapping his arm. “What the hell do you and Izzy talk about when I’m not here?”

“Well, I mostly compliment your extraordinary ass while she giggles and tells me about all the clumsy, awkward things you used to say when we first met.”

“Oh no.” Alec muttered to himself, he could remember almost all the stupid things that he’d said, and knowing that Magnus knew about them was beyond embarrassing.

“I think my personal favourite was one that Lydia told Isabelle.” Magnus said with a wicked grin. “I believe it had something to do with how magical I am, or maybe it was that I’m very good at magic?”

“I’m going to kill her.” Alec muttered. “I’m going to kill my own sister, and then I’m going to kill Lydia too, for good measure.”

Magnus let out a huge laugh. “I guess this would be a bad time to mention that your sister now knows about how you fell down the stairs after I kissed you?”

“Magnus!”

-

“We have been observing Bane’s apartment for a while now and we are struggling to find any semblance of a routine.” Corsyth reported. “It seems as though the daylighter comes and goes randomly, but we have established that he lives in the Hotel du Mort, however he is protected by their leader Raphael Santiago, so no matter how much the other vampires resent him, they will not give him up for fear of upsetting their boss.”

“That’s an inconvenience.” Carlstone muttered thoughtfully.

“We are also monitoring the Lightwood girl and the experiment’s parabatai.” Corsyth said. “They are not immune to the wards around Bane’s apartment, neither is the daylighter for that matter, they are stuck outside and have to be allowed in by the warlock.”

“I did suspect that.” Carlstone sighed.

“I’d imagine that it is going to mean that we definitely have to go after the daylighter primarily.” Corsyth said. “I was trying out different scenarios in my head and it seems that this would be the best way to go.”

“Explain.”

“Well, the red head is a close friend of the daylighter and is also dating the parabatai, therefore she would ensure that her boyfriend looks for her best friend and to do that the parabatai will come to the realisation that he needs the help of the experiment and the high warlock.” Corsyth said. “That way they are lured out from the protective wards.”

“And if they refuse to leave the wards?” Carlstone asked.

“Then we have the daylighter. We got something out of it regardless, it wouldn’t be like we kidnapped the redhead who would essentially be useless to us.

“So we invade the Hotel du Mort next.” Carlstone said. “I think I’m going to need to experiment on a few wolves in order to gain the necessary power to overcome a ton of bloodsuckers.”

“I’ll get right on that, Sir.”

“I have faith that you will.” Carlstone nodded. “Also, bring me Stenisling on your next visit. I believe he may actually have some use yet.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The action will begin in the next chapter, I promise. 
> 
> I'm sorry that the chapters are short, I have to compromise between longer updates and regular updates as I currently work way too many hours and have uni classes to study for on top of that, so please accept my apologies. 
> 
> By the way, it seems as though some people are finding that my messages on tumblr are being glitchy, some of the prompts are coming through and some people can't even send me messages so if it's not working you can send the prompts to my other tumblr 'existentialcatwhiskers' or you can keep trying 'runedmalec' if you have any luck.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise.

It was almost as though that initial movement had released something within Alec, he was improving leaps and bounds with each day that passed. Slowly he began stretching his wings out to their full extent, within the bedroom, of course. He had tried it once in the kitchen and somehow managed to break three glasses and a couple of fancy dinner plates. He had been very apologetic about the ordeal, insisting that he would pay for replacements but Magnus simply waved away the apologies and fixed all the broken items with another wave of his hand stating that Alec really needed to stop stressing the little things.

Alec was manging to successfully hold his wings in close to his back for long periods of time which Magnus liked to think was a step closer to retracting them altogether. In fact, if you looked at the Nephilim face on while he was holding in his wings, there would be no evidence of them at all, Magnus was impressed with the sudden progress they were making, not only with the whole wing situation but also with their relationship itself. The more time they were spending together, the more comfortable they were with each other, they were slowly learning the others’ mannerisms. Like how Alec would drink seriously strong black coffee; he was practically addicted to the stuff and Magnus could always tell when he was craving a cup as he would subconsciously lick his lips and glace towards the kitchen as though he could smell the coffee brewing already. Likewise Alec knew when Magnus was working on a particularly difficult case as the warlock would constantly brush a hand through his hair and sigh heavily. Whenever Magnus had one of these cases Alec liked to take his book and sit by Magnus and read, simply being near him in case his warlock needed to vent or bounce ideas.

They worked. They fit into each other’s lives so seamlessly that sometimes Alec wondered how he had gotten so lucky, what could he have done to deserve someone as perfect as Magnus? Magnus who knew how much the shadowhunter lifestyle haunted Alec and didn’t judge him for it, Magnus who sat by Alec on the sleepless nights when the demons felt too real to be just dreams. Magnus was perfect. Magnus was proof that Downworlders were good. Very possibly even better than the Nephilim that were so determined to force them down and make them feel like monsters.

There was a darkness lurking however, they were both well aware of it. Everyone was. All Nephilim and Downworlders could sense the trouble brewing like a thick fog steadily rolling over the city. They had been getting reports of werewolves going missing, lots of werewolves, and what was even worse was that they hadn’t reappeared. Alec was sure that Carlstone had taken them, he was positive, but with the lack of any return, it was seeming less and less likely. Unless Carlstone was keeping them, but why would he bother? He hadn’t done that before, so what would make him start now? It didn’t make any sense but it was making him uneasy, because if this _was_ Carlstone, then he obviously had a sudden ulterior motive and he was collecting werewolves for it.

They had gone over it so many times that just thinking about it caused Alec’s head to buzz. The werewolves could be a plot to attack Magnus’ apartment and try to capture Alec. That would be pointless, Magnus had reassured Alec of that, as there were wards surrounding them that not even another warlock could break never mind a mundane with a pack of werewolves. Werewolves that were likely to turn around and kill said mundane as well as any other humans that managed to cross their path.

It was beyond strange, which of course was fairly normal for them. Of course, there was always a chance that their disappearance had absolutely nothing to do with Carlstone, but it was highly unlikely. According to Clary – who had been speaking to Luke – the wolves who had disappeared were all strong members of their packs, they were respected and had no reason at all to disappear, they thrived on pack mentality, which made it highly unusual for werewolves to vanish for no reason.

Which meant that many of Magnus’ new client’s were pack members of missing wolves, they would come brandishing their money wildly, begging and pleading with Magnus to do whatever he could to find their missing family members. Magnus had turned away the money, telling them that if he couldn’t find them then he didn’t expect to be paid for it. Alec’s respect for Magnus had skyrocketed after hearing the warlock say that.

“Useless, everything is useless.” Magnus grumbled as he stormed into the bedroom and threw himself onto the duvet beside Alec who had been casually reading his book. Alec took one look at the heap of warlock that was slumped beside him and closed his book.

“What’s wrong?” Alec asked quietly.

“Everything,” Magnus groaned, his voice muffled by the fabric that he had shoved his face against, “I can't find these wolves because my tracking isn’t working. It doesn’t matter how strong a connection the object has to the missing person, they’re just not picking up. it’s as if they’re dead but I know that they’re not because when you track a dead person you get that chilling, icy feeling, you know?”

“I do.” Alec said, it was the same as when he tracked people with Jace, if the person was dead then they both ended up feeling as though they’d had a bucket of ice water plunged over their heads. It was an awful feeling. Alec wouldn’t wish it on anybody. “So that means that Carlstone is somehow managing to shield his other experiments from you.”

“Don’t call them experiments, Alexander. They’re people, like you are. Like I am. There is no such thing as a human experiment. Only evil, twisted people believe that they have the right to make humans into experiments.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Alec said quietly, it wasn’t true, he wasn’t sorry for saying that as he felt exactly like an experiment. He could always feel the stares from the vampire and Clary burning into his wings whenever they were in the same room. He actually felt like saying ‘my eyes are here’ a few times as they seemed to stare at the feathers rather than his face when he spoke to them, which was making it even harder than usual to tolerate their presence. 

Both Alec and Magnus jumped as Alec’s phone started ringing loudly. Alec smiled sheepishly and picked up the phone from the table.

“Hey, Izzy.” He said.

“Alec, listen, I need you to listen to me.” Isabelle said, her voice coming through the phone loud and frantic.

“Izzy, calm down, I’m listening.” Alec said soothingly. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s the Clave, they’re planning to make a move against Carlstone.” Isabelle said.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Alec asked her. “If they take out Carlstone then we won't have to, it’s one less job for us.”

“They’re not planning on killing him, they want to interrogate him, Alec!” Isabelle shouted down the phone.

“Interrogate him?” Alec muttered horrified at the thought, Magnus frowned minutely, his ear pressed in close to Alec’s so that he could hear what Isabelle was saying.

“Yes, and what’s even worse is that our parents are leading this one, they think that if they can successfully figure out who is kidnapping Downworlders and Shadowhunters then they’ll be in a better position within the Clave. What’s worse though, is if they find out anything about Carlstone’s experiments then they have orders to bring the people in alive so that they can run their own experiments.”

“So if Carlstone even mentions me then our parents are going to flip out and hand me over to the Clave without a second thought.” Alec said.

“I wish I could disagree with you, but we both know that that’s what they would do.” Isabelle said grimly.

“So we need to get Carlstone before they do, which isn’t going to be easy.” Alec groaned.

“I’m way ahead of you there brother.” Isabelle said. “Yours truly has signed up to be part of the task force and therefore I am hereby your inside man – woman – you get the point.”

“What if they figure it out before us? You can guarantee that the second they get an idea of where Carlstone is, they’re going to go for him.” Alec said. “That means we won't have a chance in hell.”

“What do you take me for? Chopped liver?” Isabelle said, offended. “If they seem to be making solid leads then I will relay the information to you and sabotage them somehow.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan.” Alec said. “Just, just be careful, alright? I don’t want you ending up in the silent city because you didn’t know when to step back.”

“You have so much faith in me big brother, it’s heart-warming.” Isabelle said.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll see you later Izzy.” Alec said hanging up the phone.

“We may have a problem if Izzy can't keep the Clave in her control.” Alec sighed.

“They’re your parents, surely they wouldn’t actually hand you over to the Clave, they raised you!” Magnus insisted.

“You’re really going to lecture me about parents, you didn’t have the best parents either, y’know.” Alec said.

Magnus snorted. “It is pretty ironic isn’t it?” He agreed.

“Look, I know that my parents haven’t even noticed that I’ve been missing.” Alec admitted. “Izzy has been saying that they’re buying her excuses, but I know that she’s an awful liar, and our parents are very good at detecting our lies, so there is no way that they would believe anything that she would have spouted off. It’s obvious that they didn’t care enough to even ask where I was.”

“Alec.” Magnus murmured, his heart breaking for his dark haired Nephilim who was far too perceptive for his own good.

“No, it’s alright, really. I always knew where I stood when it came to them, it was a bit difficult at first to have my suspicions confirmed but it didn’t take long to get over, they always put themselves first. Once I learnt that, nothing they could do would disappoint me.” Alec said.

“I love you, regardless of what your parents think, no matter how much they try and knock you down, I will always be there for you. I promise.”

“I love you too.” Alec grinned.

There were no other words spoken as their lips moved gently against each other in a slow, sensual show of love for the other. There was no fire behind it, they didn’t need that right now, they just needed the reassurance that the other one was there.

A shrill ringing broke through the quiet spell causing Magnus to jump and Alec to pull back.

“I swear to the Angel if that’s Izzy again, _I’ll_ end up in the silent city.” Alec growled, his eyes were almost black with lust.

He glanced at the screen before frowning in confusion, why would the bloodsucker be calling him?

“Simon?” He answered.

“Oh thank g-, thanks so much for answering.” Simon practically screamed down the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Alec asked.

“It’s the wolves, all the missing werewolves are at the Hotel and they’re attacking us.” Simon shouted. “They’re killing all the vampires and we’re losing!”

“Can you get out?” Alec asked seriously.

“I don’t think so, there’s too many.” Simon screeched hysterically.

“Ok, stay calm, defend yourself as best you can, we’re on our way.” Alec said.

“Wait, Alec, no, you can't-”

Alec didn’t hear the rest as he had cut the line and was too busy trying to plan an attack in his mind, he had to ensure everyone’s safety. This was going to be a very difficult mission, could he take Isabelle? It would mean risking the Clave finding out something without them knowing and then Isabelle wouldn’t be able to intercept them. And Magnus, he couldn’t risk Magnus’ life. Clary too, she would be mauled by the claws of the experimental wolves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that it's been over a month since the last update, I swear that I meant to update earlier, but you know how it is. Life just gets in the way sometimes. It doesn't help that I decided to marathon all eleven seasons of supernatural in preparation for season twelve :p


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